Question:
Can this disease be only weight related???

I was fine before I had my son and before my weight jumped to 270 lbs. I have had 5 miscarriges due to it. If I get the surgery and lose the weight could I get pregnat and be okay without homone treatments? email [email protected]    — Lauren K. (posted on August 31, 2001)

August 31, 2001
Lauren, the short answer is PROBABLY. :-) The longer answer is that being fat messes with your estrogen levels quite significantly. I understand (but would have to do some legwork to find the exact citation) that being 100 lbs overweight and female essentially means you have as much extra estrogen floating around as if you were taking a birth control pill every day! Obviously, most of us still have our cycles on a regular or irregular basis, so it's not perfect like a daily bcp, but it can really mess with your ability to carry a pregnancy to term.<br><br>I'm part of a group of 50 mothers who are breastfeeding babies that we had in January 2000. About 1/3 of us are still nursing at 20 months (we buck EVERY trend!! YAY FOR US!!). Every single one of us that has had significant milk supply issues is at least 50 lbs overweight. I have talked to two lactation consultants who both, in the end, suggested that it could be because I'm so fat (150 lbs overweight) and that the extra estrogen floating around in my body would be a natural breastmilk suppressor.<br><br>Were you looking for a short answer? :-) I think after you have your surgery, and lose a good chunk of weight, you will get pregnant without problems and then will have no troubles breastfeeding either. There are two groups that might be of interest to you: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OSSG-breastfeeding (16 members, but only a month old) and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OSSG-pregnant (382 members). I also started a group on BabyCenter a long time ago called Big, Beautiful and Pregnant. I don't host it anymore, so I don't know how friendly it would be to women exploring WLS, but there's good support there anyway. http://www.babycenter.com/bbs/8404<br><br>Hope this helps, and keep us posted!
   — Julia M.

September 7, 2001
It's usually the number one reccomendation for PCOS. Lose weight, and everything changes! http://www.pcosupport.org/
   — Karen R.